Integrum - Databases from Russia and CIS - New possibilities for economists

Integrum-aineistokoulutuksen 28.9. - 29.9.2011 materiaali

Integrum - Databases from Russia and CIS - New possibilities for economists

Integrum-aineistokoulutuksen 28.9. - 29.9.2011 koulutusmateriaali

Integrum - Databases from Russia and CIS - New possibilities for political and social studies

Integrum-aineistokoulutuksen 28.9. - 29.9.2011 koulutusmateriaalia

Integrum - Databases from Russia and CIS - New Possibilities for Public Libraries

Integrum-aineistokoulutuksen 28.9. - 29.9.2011 koulutusmateriaalia

Perspectives for the production and usage of wood chips as a source of energy in the North-West of Russia

The development of bioenergy on the basis of wood fuels has received considerable attention in the last decades. The combination of large forest resources and reliance on fossil fuels makes the issue of wood chips usage in Russia an actual topic for the analysis. The main objective of this study is to disclose the current state and perspectives for the production of wood chips and their usage as a source of energy in the North-West of Russia. The study utilizes an integrated approach to explore the market of wood chips on the basis of comprehensive analysis of documentation and expert opinions. The analysis of wood chips market was performed for eight regions of the North-West district of Russia within two major dimensions: its current state and perspectives in the nearest five years. The results of the study show a comprehensive picture of the wood chips market, including the potential for wood chips production, the specific features of production and consumption and the perspectives for the market development within the regions of the North-West district of Russia. The study demonstrated that the market of wood chips is underdeveloped in the North-West of Russia. The findings of the work may be used by forest companies for the strategic planning.

Customer loyalty in DIY retailing in Russia: Innovative approaches for improving customer retention through technology

Customer satisfaction has been widely studied concept due to its importance on business performance. Customer satisfaction should ideally lead to customer loyalty and have a positive effect on business profitability and growth. This study investigates customer satisfaction and loyalty in the Do-It-Yourself retailing in Russian  market.  “K-rauta”  retail  chain  was  chosen  as  a  focus company for this study. Goal of the study was to investigate what creates customer satisfaction in this given market and what is the role of quality, trust and satisfaction for creating customer loyalty. The role of internet in consumer purchasing process was also investigated. Furthermore, consumer preferences towards new marketing solutions such as smart phone applications were briefly examined.

Hazard Risk Management in Large Nordic Companies' Operations in Russia

The objective of this research was to describe how Nordic companies manage hazard risks in their operations in Russia and how the local business environment is considered to affect the hazard risks. Research methods used in this research were literature review and expert interviews. Twelve Nordic industrial companies operating in different fields of industry were interviewed. Large Nordic companies typically guide risk management centralized from the parent company on behalf of the whole company group and the risk management standards and policies are integrated in all subsidiaries. Parent companies typically control hazard risk management in Russia by regular risk management reporting, auditing the Russian sites and by training local managers and employees to risk management work. Many companies have experienced several losses in the first years of operating in Russia before the risk management policies have been implemented in Russian subsidiaries. The companies have learned to take local characteristics better into account by experience and most companies are quite satisfied with their current risk management standards in Russia. The interviews indicate that companies experience especially the poor quality of infrastructure, some features in Russian organizational culture and high level of criminality to increase hazard risks in Russia. However, understanding these features and risks in the business environment makes the management of these risks possible. Risks related to infrastructure can be managed in advance by decreasing dependencies of infrastructure and considering the infrastructure quality already when planning the business operations. Also good local network is often considered critical in order to overcome the complications related to infrastructure. Russian personnel has typically different attitude towards risk management than Nordic personnel and neglecting safety and maintenance and concealing losses is more typical in Russia. By training and guiding the local personnel risk management and safety work and desired ways of actions these risks can be decreased. Criminality risks are often managed to certain extent by investing in security, increasing supervising and paying attention to reliability of the employees and other interest groups of the company.

DIGITAL BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS IN EMERGING MARKETS – Developing Business Marketing in Russia

The core idea of this Master's Thesis was that five key characteristics – market heterogeneity, sociopolitical governance, chronic shortage of resources, unbranded competition, and inadequate infrastructure – of emerging markets are radically different from the traditional industrialized capitalist society and they will require us to rethink the core assumptions of business-to-business marketing, such as business relationships, marketing communication elements, and digitalization. In this research, Russia is considered to be an emerging market that reflects the aforementioned theoretical characteristics. The research was a qualitative case study and furthermore a collective case study. In the beginning three digital marketing professionals were interviewed to better understand digital B2B marketing. The actual research data was collected through seven structured theme interviews with representatives of the case companies operating in Russia. The selection of case companies included three business consulting companies and four industrial companies. The aim of this qualitative study was to understand and clarify how business marketing exploits digital marketing methods as a part of the chosen business marketing strategy under emerging markets’ special conditions. This objective was divided in three research questions: 1) How the chosen marketing strategy reflects in the business marketing process? 2) How digital marketing communication contributes to business marketing? 3) How are the emerging markets’ characteristics reflected in the business marketing process? The main research findings indicate that digital business-to-business marketing communications can be useful and effective. Moreover, business DMC can be defined and structured in a reasonable way. The company's prevalent marketing paradigm and the chosen marketing strategy reflect in the business marketing process, and in utilizing digital marketing communications. The assumption that emerging markets set an environment with special characteristics for business marketing was supported by the study. However, the business environmental aspects were not considerably disturbing digital B2B marketing, but making it even more reasonable to harness in Russia.

Logistics of North-West Russia and Rail Baltica: Standpoints of Private Sector

The main aims of the present report are to describe the current state of railway transport in Russia, and to gather standpoints of Russian private transportation logistics sector towards the development of new railway connection called Rail Baltica Growth Corridor, connecting North-West Russia with Germany through the Baltic States and Poland. North-West Russia plays important role not only in Russian logistics, but also wider European markets as in container sea ports handling is approx. 2.5 mill. TEU p.a. and handling volume in all terminals is above 190 million tons p.a. The whole transportation logistics sector is shortly described as an operational environment for railways – this is done through technical and economic angles. Transportation development is always going in line with economics of the country, so the analysis on economical development is also presented. Logistics integration of the country is strongly influenced by its engagement in the international trade. Although, raw material handling at sea ports and container transports (imports) are blossoming, domestic transportation market is barely growing (in long-term perspective). Thus, recent entrance of Russia into World Trade Organization (WTO) is analyzed theme in this research, as the WTO is an important regulator of the foreign trade and enabler of volume growth in foreign trade related transportation logistics. However, WTO membership can influence negatively the development of Russia���s own industry and its volumes (these have been uncompetitive in global markets for decades). Data gathering in empirical part was accomplished by semi-structured case study interviews among North-West Russian logistics sector actors (private). These were conducted during years 2012-2013, and research compiles findings out of ten case company interviews. Although, there was no sea port involved in the study, most of the interviewed companies relied in European Logistics within significant parts in short sea shipping and truck combined transportation chains (in Russian part also using railways). As the results of the study, it could be concluded that Rail Baltica is seen as possible transport corridor in most of the interviewed companies, if there is enough cargo available. However, interviewees are a bit sceptical, because major and large-scale infrastructural improvements are needed. Delivery time, frequency and price level are three main factors influencing the attractiveness of Rail Baltica route. Price level is the most important feature, but if RB can offer other advantages such as higher frequency, shorter lead times or more developed set of value-added services, then some flexibility is possible for the price level. Environmental issues are not the main criteria of today, but are recognized and discussed among customers. Great uncertainty exists among respondents e.g. on forthcoming sulphur oxide ban on Baltic Sea shipping (whether or not it is going to be implemented in Russia). Rather surprisingly, transportation routes to Eastern Europe and Mediterranean area are having higher value and price space than those to Germany/Central Europe. Border crossing operations (traction monopoly at rails and customs), gauge widths as well as unclear decision-making processes (in Russia), are named as hindering factors. Performance standards for European connected logistics among Russian logistics sector representatives are less demanding as compared to neighbourhood countries belonging to EU.

Pursuing substantive participation in Russia : a perspective from international legal obligations and comparative law

Så som är fallet för många andra stater, kan vissa delar av den ryska förvaltningen ännu utvecklas för att till fullo uppfylla internationella standarder. Internationella fördragsorgan som övervakar förverkligandet i Ryssland av fördrag om mänskliga rättigheter framför ibland kritiska anmärkningar om den demokratiska utvecklingen i Ryssland. Enskilda fall där politiska rättigheter möjligen kränkts av ryska myndigheter har utan tvivel placerat Ryssland i fokus för internationell media. Exempel på sådana fall är mordet på journalisten Anna Politkovskaya, Sergei Magnitskys död i fängelse och fängslandet av medlemmarna i "Pussy Riot”. Likväl anser författaren av denna studie att politiska rättigheter i Ryssland förverkligas inom rimliga gränser och i enlighet med internationell människorättslagstiftning. Denna studie fokuserar på förverkligandet av den individuella rättigheten att delta i det politiska beslutsfattandet i Ryssland genom andra mekanismer för deltagande än val och folkomröstningar. Studien utgörs av en sammanställning av forskningsartiklar som har publicerats i olika internationella tidskrifter. Sammanställningen föregås av ett fristående inledande kapitel. Författaren koncentrerar sig på frågan om Rysslands invånare ges effektiva möjligheter att delta i handhavandet av allmänna angelägenheter och om det finns användbara rättsmedel till hands för skydd av de politiska rättigheterna. Författaren tar sig an en juridisk analys av rysk lagstiftning gällande olika sätt för direkt deltagande i beslutsfattande samt analyserar rättsfall angående direkt deltagande från domstolarna i Moskva, Perm Krai och Sverdlovsk Oblast. Denna studie använder sig även av en rättshistorisk infallsvinkel för att visa på den positiva dynamiken hos den historiska utvecklingen beträffande d e väsentligaste plattformarna för offentligt deltagande. Det bevisas att rysk lagstiftning som garanterar rätten att delta i beslutsfattande är väl utvecklad i enlighet med internationella människorättsfördrag, och att åtminstone domstolarna i de utvalda ryska områdena fattar beslut som stöder deltaganderättigheter som eventuellt kränkts av myndigheter inom den verkställande makten. Författaren kommer till den slutsatsen att de i denna studie inkluderade enskilda dokumenterade händelserna gällande administrativ felbehandling inte nödvändigtvis tillåter den direkta slutsatsen att det begås systematiska och grova kränkningar av medborgares deltaganderättigheter i Ryssland.

Applications of augmented reality for sales in apparel industry in Russia

The sustainable growth of video interactivity technologies on different platforms in the lasts years opens good prospects for augmented reality technology adoption on different markets. In the end of 2011 there was an improvement in technology which allows building the 3D model of human body. Such an improvement could be used in apparel industry. The main goal of the study is to understand the level of acceptance of augmented reality as a technology on the Russian apparel market. For a more accurate investigation, a new model accounting for augmented reality characteristics, as well as for similarities and differences between online and offline customer behavior in apparel industry, was developed. As a result of the survey, the weights of different purchase intention factors for Russian consumer were found, and the information about Russian consumers’ preferences towards the augmented reality features in apparel market, especially in fitting time, real-time interaction and fitting quality peculiarities, was presented.

Local Embeddedness and Knowledge Acquisition and How They Affect Finnish Business Operations in Russia

This pilot project aims examine the factors of the Finnish subsidiaries local embeddedness, their knowledge creation capabilities and the transfer mechanisms of new practices in the context of the Russian market. The research is designed as a multiple case study conducted with a qualitative approach. The empirical data consists of the interviews of the four Finnish case companies operating in the Kaluga region and three local partner companies. The deductive and inductive approaches were employed to conduct the analysis of the data. The propositions for the future study were developed in the conclusive chapters of the research, where we propose that the factor of the economy growth and industrialization matters in terms of subsidiaries’ role dedication, their knowledge creation capabilities, and direction of the knowledge flow within the local environment.

Russia, China, India Foresight for Small and Medium size Enterprises in Uusimaa : Changes forecast in the Russian, Chinese and Indian operating environments from the viewpoint of small and middle-sized enterprises in Uusimaa

The report describes those factors of the future that are related to the growth and needs of Russia, China, and India and that may provide significant internationalisation potential for Uusimaa companies. The report examines the emerging trends and market-entry challenges for each country separately. Additionally, it evaluates the training needs of Uusimaa companies in terms of the current offerings available for education on topics related to Russia, China, and India. The report was created via the Delphi method: experts were interviewed, and both Trendwiki material and the latest literature were used to create a summary of experts’ views, statements, and reasons behind recent developments. This summary of views was sent back to the experts with the objective of reaching consensus synthesising the differing views or, at least, of providing argumentation for the various alternative lines of development. In addition to a number of outside experts and business leaders, all heads of Finpro’s Finland Trade Centers participated in the initial interviews. The summary was commented upon by all Finpro consultants and analysts for Russia, China, and India, with each focusing on his or her own area of expertise. The literature used consisted of reports, listed for each country, and an extensive selection of the most recent newspaper articles. The report was created in January-April 2010. On 22 April 2010 its results were reviewed at the final report presentation in cooperation with the Uusimaa ELY Centre.

The adjustment from Russia to Finland for corporate repatriates: How the repatriation experience influences readjustment in the workplace

To manage foreign operations, companies must often send their employees on international assignments. Repatriating these expatriates can be difficult because they have been forgotten during their posting, and their new experiences are not utilised. In addition to the possible difficulties in organisational repatriation, the returnee can suffer from readjustment problems after a lengthy stay abroad has changed their habits and even identity. This thesis examines the repatriation experience of Finnish assignees returning from Russia. The purpose of the study is to understand how the repatriation experience influences their readjustment to work in Finland. This experience is influenced by many factors including personal and situational changes, the repatriation process, job and organisational factors, and individual’s motives. The theoretical background of the study is founded on two models of repatriation adjustment. A refined, holistic theoretical framework for the study is created. It describes the formation of the repatriation experience and its importance for readjustment to work and retention. The qualitative research approach is suitable for the thesis which examines the returnees’ personal experiences and feelings: a qualitative case study aims to explain the phenomenon in-depth and comprehensively. The data was collected in summer 2013 through semi-standardised interviews with eight Finnish repatriates. They had returned from Russia within the last two years. The data was analysed by structuring the interview transcripts using template analysis. The results supported earlier literature and suggest that the re-entry remains a challenging phase for both the individual and the company. For some, adjusting to a new job was difficult for various reasons. The repatriates underwent personal change and development and felt it was for the better. Many repatriates criticised the company’s repatriation process upon return. Finding a suitable return job was not clear. Instead, the returnees had to be active in finding a new position. Many assignees had only modest career-related motives regarding the assignment and they had realistic expectations about the return. Therefore they were not extremely surprised or dissatisfied when they were not actively offered positions or support by the company. The significance of motives stood out even more than the theory predicted. As predicted, they are linked to the expectations of employees. Moreover, if the employees are motivated to remain in the company, they can tolerate partly a negative repatriation experience. Despite the complexity of the return and readjustment, the assignment as a whole was seen as a rewarding experience by all participants.